Fundraiser set for soup kitchen

It will be a dinner and entertainment event to help support the operations of the soup kitchen, which feeds the poor and homeless seven days a week in Champaign.

Tickets are $25, and include a meal of soup, salad, a sandwich, chips, dessert and lemonade, with a cash bar available.

Entertainment will be provided by Candy Foster and Shades of Blue.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance, and the benefit will be held rain or shine.

Gina Stocking, a board member and longtime volunteer at the soup kitchen, said proceeds will help support Daily Bread's food expenses, which continue to rise with more people to feed.

"We are very, very busy," she said.

Recently, she said, there were 273 people served in an hour-and-a-half lunch, compared to what would be a more usual number of 200 people for lunch at this time of year. Numbers typically don't increase that much until the summer when school meal programs aren't available to kids, she said.

"I'm seeing a lot of new faces," Stocking said. "Most people have a place to live but they don't have money for food."

To get a ticket to the fund-raiser in advance, send an email to: socksfive@aol.com[2].